Photographer Kareems Black: Life and Work

I have been fan of Kareem Black since I discovered his work in Complex magazine a few years ago. His portraits of celebrities, artists, and regular folk were so effortless and comfortable they seemed as if they were hanging out, rather than being posed.



I was glad to come across this video of him talking about his work, staying inspired by shooting during dry periods, and how the photos he took for fun led to paid jobs. I need this kind of inspiration!

It is amazing to me how a person can do the same thing you do, but achieve a completely different result. I would have never thought of showing my party pics (and why do his shots look like he was in a Heineken/Addidas/Drake video all in one?) I either need to have more fun, or need new friends.

Kareem's "fun photo" based site FeelsGoodLetsGo

Shout out to Brent Morales for the link.

Rolling Stone Magazine + Rhianna

The world is finding out and seeing more and more of what I knew already, that Rhianna is sexy as hell. First the red hair, then new album, now chain mail Daisy Dukes.

Before I go off the deep end, here is a behind the scenes video of the shoot. I had hope that they would have shown more of the set ups.



Its funny how when you have photo assistants, they do all the stuff you have to do alone; holding reflectors, setting up, etc and you can concentrate on just shooting.

Vintage Paperback Covers

I found a great source of pin-up style women and burlesque poses in these out of print 1950's vintage book covers. These detailed, stylistic illustrations were meant to be about sexy, racy (at the time), out of control women, and to be intriguing to men in a way the Bad Girls Club cannot. Less is definitely more.



The covers are translatable to photographs easily, and I will certainly try to emulate them in the near future when I need a throwback look or want to try something different.

See more at Design Crave, which I will be visiting to get my much needed graphic design fix.